Turkeys voting for Christmas

Fascinating article about why voters vote against their own interests:

Gore: "Under the governor's plan, if you kept the same fee for service that you have now under Medicare, your premiums would go up by between 18% and 47%, and that is the study of the Congressional plan that he's modelled his proposal on by the Medicare actuaries."

Bush: "Look, this is a man who has great numbers. He talks about numbers.

"I'm beginning to think not only did he invent the internet, but he invented the calculator. It's fuzzy math. It's trying to scare people in the voting booth."

Mr Gore was talking sense and Mr Bush nonsense - but Mr Bush won the debate. With statistics, the voters just hear a patronising policy wonk, and switch off.

In other words, half of voting America vote they way they do because they are stupid. Very, deeply, and profoundly stupid. In twenty, fifty, or ninety years historians will look back at this period shaking their heads, grappling with the inanity. Hard to believe people really were that dumb.